The town of Martinez Lake, located in the Arizona desert, reached 43°C, breaking the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in the United States in March.
Following a day where a small community in the southern California desert reached 42.2°C, forecasters warned on Thursday that the record-breaking winter heatwave affecting the southwest of the country would continue until the weekend.
North Shore, California, tied a record set for the first time in Rio Grande City, Texas, in 1954 on Wednesday.
Several other California locations also reached 42.2°C on Thursday, including Cathedral City near Palm Springs and the town of Thermal, northeast of San Diego, known for its fitting name.
Thermal is expected to reach 43.3°C on Friday and could break the March record.
Ruben Pantaleon mentioned that he wasn’t bothered by the heat as he cleaned car windshields with a scraper at a Thermal intersection on Thursday afternoon. He wore shorts and had electrolyte drinks on hand.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), several cities experienced their hottest March day in 40 years on Wednesday. Las Vegas reached 37.2°C, surpassing the previous record of 33.8°C set in 2022. Downtown Los Angeles hit 34.4°C, breaking its previous daily record for March 18 of 30.5°C in 1997.
Temperatures exceeding 37°C were also recorded in Phoenix, Arizona’s capital, which reached 38.3°C on Wednesday. The previous record was set almost 40 years ago on March 26, 1988, as per NWS.
Temperatures will remain above average for March for the rest of the week in the southwest, before slightly decreasing from Sunday onward.
“To put things in perspective, the first day of the year where the average temperature reaches 40.5°C normally occurs on May 22,” the weather service stated in a press release.
The last time temperatures in Phoenix exceeded 37.8°C in March was almost 40 years ago. Hiking trails around the city were closed due to the risk of heatstroke.
